In the End
by LittleKnux2008
Summary: 1 year after ARK, Sonic decides to try and forget about Shadow. But his vow will be hard to keep when a certain someone is taken by a certain duo. R/R {bit of Sonadow}
1. Prologue

A/N:  I'm back!  Finally!  Hope you guys like this story! I think it's going to be a shorter story.  Anyway, R&R, please!

Disclaimer:  I own the story, but nothing in it.  Confusing, huh?

-                  -                  -                  -                  -                  -

In the End

          Prologue - Forget

          The sun disappeared beyond the horizon, darkening the figure of the hedgehog that stood alone, a sole figure in the approaching night.  Behind the hedgehog, a dark forest echoed eerily.  But the hedgehog stayed, never straying from the cliff-like piece of land that jutted out, overlooking the ocean.  Emerald eyes stared at the glistening water, waiting.  Waiting for something that never came.  

          Sonic dropped his head, tearing his gaze away from the water.  He slid a finger across a golden bracelet that hung on his thin wrist.  The blue hedgehog bit his lip deeply, and blood fought to seep out of the gash. 

          One year since ARK. 

          Sonic fought to keep the images out of his head.  They came, despite any effort.  The blue hedgehog sunk to his knees, throbbing in silent, emotional pain. 

          _"Help me," whispered the dark hedgehog finally.  His wide red eyes locked onto Sonic.  He wasn't ready to die.  Slowly, the hedgehog extended his gloved hand.  Sonic stretched his hand out once more, still clinging tightly to Shadow's bracelet.  _

_          "Shadow!" he cried, and darted forward.  The dark hedgehog looked at him sadly as flames spread slowly across his arms.  "No," he whispered.  Amy's concerned voice shouted in his ear as he moved forward, trying to catch the red fireball.  He stopped finally, knowing that he would never catch Shadow.  As his power drained, Sonic took one last look at the fireball that used to be Shadow, now only a red dot over the ocean sea.    _

          Sonic shook his head quietly.  He could've saved Shadow.  He could've!  Even in his mind, the words sounded redundant.  The hedgehog gripped his wrist tighter, closing his eyes tighter.  A single tear slowly rolled off of his eye.  

          What was so different about Shadow?  Something about him…  Sonic refused to let go…to forget…to forgive…  Every month, he traveled out to this place, staring at the waters, reliving his pain at seeing the dark hedgehog go.  Every month, he blamed himself.  The hedgehog would've had another chance at life if it weren't for him…if only Sonic had held on a little longer…

          Sonic curled himself into a ball, his emerald eyes watching the water.  He hated nature as soon as he did.  The hedgehog wished there would be something to signify the one-year anniversary of Shadow's death.  Clouds, lightning, waves, something!  But the night mocked the hedgehog peacefully, basking in its beauty.  

          The hedgehog stared down at the bracelet quietly.  Why did he pain so much after Shadow's death?  It was a question Sonic had asked himself many, many times.  Sonic hardly knew the hedgehog, and when he did, for most of it Shadow had been his enemy.  So why did he keep hanging on, as if the hedgehog would simply appear right behind him.  But he wouldn't.  Shadow was dead.  D-E-A-D.  

          Sonic looked up at the stars that twinkled down at him.  His haunted emerald eyes reflected the white glow as he thought.  What was his relationship with Shadow, anyway?  Enemy, friend…something more?  Sonic set his heavy head down on top of his hands.  He had never mourned so much for anybody, not even his parents… 

          Nor had he ever been so confused about his feelings.  Sighing, he wondered what to consider Shadow.  Definitely not an enemy…  Maybe a friend?  But even a friend didn't seem…right.  The hedgehog pressed his palms to his head quietly.  The confusion itself tried to rip the hedgehog apart.  Calling Shadow an enemy seemed so evil, but calling him a friend didn't seem to match the dark hedgehog.  So what was left?  

          Lover?  At the same time he considered it, one half of him rejected it immediately.  The other took time to consider.

          Sonic withdrew himself from the argument and looked back at the water.  The calm waves melted along the shore.  The blue hedgehog closed his eyes, trying to draw himself to a decision.  Was the other hedgehog really worth this?  It didn't really matter; he was dead no matter what he thought.  Sonic remembered the words of comfort from Tails and Amy and them saying he should just forget.  They didn't understand.  And why would they?  But Knuckles…  He seemed to be the closest to knowing what Sonic was going through.  His lavender eyes told Sonic what the echidna wouldn't allow himself to say.  The echidna had taken a heavy load off of his shoulders.

          "Sonic," he had said as he went back to Angel Island, "What's done is done."  Knuckles' words had stopped the flow of considerable "what-ifs" from entering his thoughts, but sometimes, Sonic considered them against his better judgment.  So what?

          The blue hedgehog sighed.  Maybe Amy and Tails were right also.  He fingered the bracelet once more.  Maybe it was best to forgive and forget.  Sonic knew he couldn't forgive himself.  But maybe, just maybe, he could forget.  Sonic slowly twisted the golden bracelet off of his wrist.  

          "Sayonara, Shadow the Hedgehog," he whispered, his voice trailing across the open waters.  Slowly, Sonic jerked his hand back and forth.  He felt the warm metal leave his hand.  The bracelet flew in a small arc, and landed with a small _plunk! _In the water.  Sonic's arm dropped to his side.  He stared at the exact spot where it had landed, and then he slowly turned back into the forest, after one more longing look to the water.  

          Just after the hedgehog left, a island swung into view, the draft from it stirring and spinning the loose leaves lying on the ground.  Angel Island towered over Sonic's "secret spot".  Bluish arcs of energy danced across the Island, a fight invisible to anyone on the mainland.

-                  -                  -                  -                  -                  -                  -

A/N:  Hope you liked it!  Please, please review!

**2 or 3 reviews before I post the next part.**

I'll start working on 'Part 1' as soon as I post this, so if the reviews come in before I finish, don't think I'm backing out on my word, I'm just a little slow!  R&R! 


	2. Part I

A/N:  Hi everybody!  Glad to see you liked the first chapter.  Hope you enjoy this one!  Please review!

Disclaimer:  I don't own anything.

*                      *                      *                      *                      *

            IN THE END

            PART I – ENEMY IN THE SHADOW

            Knuckles felt the cool night breeze breathe across his face.  His fists clenched, his knees bent.  He wasn't imagining himself – he had heard something in the dark night…hadn't he?  Or maybe he was just being paranoid…

            _Swish.  _There it was, once again.  A hardly detectable sound, as light as a feather falling on a pillow.  But against the Guardian's ears, it was a drum against the silent sky.  The red echidna fell back into the shadows, his lavender eyes watching the Shrine carefully, and his feet poised to leap.  The intruder crept forward, causing Knuckles to lean even further.  The green bathe of the Emerald's light did not spread enough to show the intruder.  Knuckles step closer, trying to get a good look at the intruder.  But every time he seemed to have the animal in his sights, all he got was a swish of black blending with shadow.  Knuckles felt a noise, but closer this time.  He turned around.  And odd feeling crept into his stomach.  A Guardian always listens to his gut instinct.  Knuckles backed away from the spot, cold constricting his throat.  He needed to get out of the shadows, but he'd be seen if he glided close to the Emerald.  The echidna closed his eyes tightly, listening and thinking.  He opened his lavender eyes…

            …And he stared at his reflection through white metal.  In surprise, Knuckles darted backward, but lost his footing and fell backwards.  His hands broke the fall, and he flipped himself back upright.  The intruder stepped from the shadows.  Knuckles gasped.  It was a robot, as the white eyes had given away, but it was black.  Not just black, but shadowed.  If Knuckles hadn't been train to spot things then he would never had seen the robot.  The robot did not move like a machine.  In fact, it moved with the fluid grace of a trained assassin.  The robot walked forward.  It was oddly nondescript.  It neither sauntered forward, nor quickly jerked forward.  Each step the robot took, Knuckles took backward, his eyes wide.  One clear thought shined out of the ones jumbled in his head: "Robotnik."  A simple, one word thought.  A terrifying, numb-full feeling.  Robotnik used to be fun and games, but he had proved himself.  He had redeemed himself as a threat.  Knuckles felt his feet hit the bottom step of the Shrine.  Slowly, carefully, he looked back at the robot.  

            Knuckles leapt forward, trying to dig his shoulder into the robot's gut, but the robot pressed its metal hands on his shoulders and broke his momentum. Then, using Knuckles' shoulders, he threw him into the stairs.  The robot picked up the echidna relentlessly, and threw him, once again, only this time away from the Shrine, heading to the Emerald.

            Knuckles picked himself up off the ground.  He saw the robot slowly reach the Emerald.  "**SHATTERED JEWEL!**" he cried.  Not an attack he used often, but an attack he had learned…before.  An arc of diamonds, each with sharp edges, belted toward the robot.  But before they could reach it, the robot melted into shadow again, and the diamonds crashed against the emerald, shattering one of its sides into large chunks.  The echidna looked for the robot, but his eyes did not see anything.  Suddenly, he felt pain in his lower back.  Turning, he was once again met with those damn white eyes…

            "Give up, Mortal," the robot's voice wasn't exactly…robotic.  It was just flat and devoid of feeling.  

            "Never," responded Knuckles with gritted teeth, rolling away from the robot, running to the Emerald.  He tossed a glance over his shoulder as he thundered up the stairs.  The robotic still stood there, a cocky tilt to its head as it watched him.  Knuckles almost froze.  Why wasn't the robot moving?  Didn't he want the Master Emerald?  Once he reached the Emerald, he slammed his fist into the Emerald, shattering the whole thing.  The robot moved swiftly forward, bounding up the steps easily.  Knuckles resumed his fighting stance, thinking quickly of an attack that may injure the robot.  Finally thinking of a sequence, the echidna bounded forward.  Each punch he threw didn't seem to hurt the robot, only push it down a step.  No matter how hard he slammed his fist, nothing bent.  Not even the metal shield around its exterior.  

            "Do you intend on hurting yourself?" the robot spoke.  Knuckles paused for a second, knowing that from each punch, his knuckles grew bruised.  His breathing labored, he stopped, blinking the sweat off his eyes rapidly.  

            "What do you want?" he growled.  The robot stared at him for a second before replying in its monotone voice.  

            "You," it replied simply, and to the point.  Knuckles blinked, surprised.  Him?  What about the Emerald?  The robot regarded the echidna, the Guardian's reflection shifting in its metal eyes.  Slowly, it lifted one hand up, palm facing Knuckles with its fingers curled.  Knuckles jerked his arm, ready to move, sure that the robot was attacking…

            …But his arm didn't move.  Knuckles gasped, tugging on his muscles, trying to get something – even his fingers – to move.  They wouldn't.  As soon as he seemed to realize this, an oppressive shield settled around him, squeezing in, cutting off his breath.  His bones and muscles caught at a rigid angle, Knuckles fought against the shield.  He felt his lungs gasping for air, his heart pounding against his chest, pumping nonexistent oxygen-full blood.  As his eyelids tugged down and blackness twirled around the edges of his vision, Knuckles saw the blue mist whispering around him, filling his nostrils and mouth.  Moments later, he lay limp, suspended in the air only by the surrounding blue mist.  

/                       /                       /                       /                       /                       /

A/N:  REVIEW PLEASE!!  Sorry it was short! 


End file.
